Cookies on the Odgers Berndtson Website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. This includes cookies from third parties such as Google Analytics. Such third-party cookies may track your use of the Odgers Berndtson website. If you continue, we’ll assume you’re happy to receive cookies on the Odgers Berndtson website. To learn more about the use of cookies on our website or to opt-out from them, please visit our Privacy Policy.

After the Baby Boomers

The next generation of leadership

08 May 2013

One of the biggest, and most underappreciated, upheavals that will affect companies over the next decade is the retirement of the current generation of senior executives. As these leaders prepare to hand over the baton to the next generation, it becomes ever more pertinent to ask: What will follow in their wake?

To create this report, we spoke to 100 senior managers of global companies. Their responses provide an in-depth understanding of how companies see their marketplaces and workforces changing over the next two decades, and how ready they are to embrace these changes.

They represent a wide range of industries and geographies and 30% are women. Their responses fall into three broad categories: What is the situation now? What skills will be most important in the next 20 years? How futureproof are today’s companies?

The report closes with some suggestions on how companies can prepare themselves for a new generation of leadership. It concludes that, to continue to thrive, organizations must:

Transfer knowledge, by coaching, mentoring and codification.

Re-evaluate their organizational structure, including their incentive philosophy, and how they recruit and retain talent.